Building Automation Systems (BAS) are used to coordinate, manage, and automate control of diverse environmental, physical, and electrical building subsystems, particularly HVAC and climate control but also including security, lighting, power, and the like. Typical existing BAS systems are hardwired or use a proprietary communication standard or protocol to link the various subsystems and provide system-wide user access, monitoring, and control. A BAS may comprise a plurality of end devices, a communication network, a server engine, and a graphical user interface (GUI) or other means of providing control and reporting data to a user. The end devices are each typically associated with a room, a space, a system, or a subsystem for at least a portion of a building or a campus. The BAS communication network may support a plurality of communication protocols and communicatively couples end devices to the server engine. One such communication network standard is the ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 135-2008, or more generally BACnet™. Multiple versions of the BACnet™ standard exist and are known to those skilled in the art of building automation and control networks. BACnet™ was intended to standardize HVAC interoperability and serve as a solution to industry-wide issues. The BACnet standard specifies a variety of networking technologies including Ethernet, ARCNET, an EIA-485 master/slave token passing scheme, and IP (UDP). In use, however, BACnet™ exists in multiple versions and includes various non-standard feature functions available to vendors. Many vendors dictate a particular BACnet™ version that must be used in order to achieve system compliance, forcing BAS users to update networks or equipment in order to expand. BACnet™ is therefore not completely interoperable across versions and features.
A BACnet™ compatible device such as an embedded controller or a properly equipped personal computer is assigned a unique identifier for the individual network. An end device is normally a member of only one BACnet™ network. End devices generally include only a minimal level of computing power and typically need to be backward compatible with older devices that can be present in an existing installation. MAC addresses in typical networks are used to individually identify devices such that every single computing device has a unique MAC address. Unlike a MAC address that is typically set by a manufacturer during production and are used to coordinate devices at a data link layer, a device's BACnet™ identifier, or device instance, is assigned at the logical network layer when the device becomes a member of a network. A device identifier, called a device instance, must be unique within a BACnet™ network.
BAS network topologies can vary greatly. For example, a large retail company could have hundreds of stores, each with a single BAS network connecting all of the systems in each store. Examples of the types of systems in a store could include devices to collect pressures, temperatures, humidity level, power/energy readings, and other run-time statistics; as well as controls for each of these environmental, security, lighting, or other systems. Alternatively, a university could have a single BAS network connecting each end device located throughout dozens of buildings on a single campus. Each of these network topologies depicts a single network connecting multiple devices in one or more buildings. On the opposite side of the topology spectrum, a high-rise building could be configured such that each end device or controller for an individual floor, or a small number of adjacent floors occupied by a single tenant, is connected to a single BAS network. In this configuration there can be dozens of BAS networks in a single building. Each network topology can provide various advantages by either isolating or comingling together collections of devices into one or more networks.
Existing BAS networks can be difficult and communicatively cumbersome to manage on a large scale, such as by a regional or nationwide retailer or other organization. Further, while Internet-based and accessible systems are presently available and in use, these systems suffer from several drawbacks. Many current Internet-based systems were created as add-ons to existing BAS installations and thus have integrated and proprietary designs. These systems do not offer the adaptability and extensibility necessary to interface with non-native systems and sub-systems, a particular issue with respect to large-scale systems implemented in existing structures. Existing system also do not provide adequate centralized management of multiple BAS networks, especially in the situation where multiple versions of the BACnet™ protocol are in use on different networks.
Accordingly, a need remains for systems and methods capable of integrating, managing, and coordinating multiple BAS networks comprised of a variety of protocols and protocol versions, that can be geographically or logically located across multiple spaces, floors, buildings, campuses or other structures.